The word 'wonton' entered English in the early 20th century as a direct borrowing from Cantonese (wàhn tān). It is a transliteration of the Chinese term for this specific food item. The Cantonese term itself originates from earlier Chinese, where the characters broadly relate to the concept of swallowing a dumpling. As a culinary loanword, its form was adopted whole into English to name a dish for which no native English term existed, following a common pattern of borrowing food names from their cultures of origin.

This word is a loanword from Cantonese. It does not contain separable English morphemes.